Hurricane Dennis closed in on the Gulf Coast on Sunday afternoon with battering waves and high wind after strengthening into a dangerous storm.

"This storm just flat out blew up," Local 6 meteorologist Tom Sorrells said earlier. "This thing is going to devastate where it hits. It's a monster Category 4 storm by tonight. It's going to be a huge national story for days to come."

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Early Sunday, Hurricane Dennis was a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds near 145 mph with higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center.

"If you care anything at all about Panama City or Pensacola, you really have to hurt for these folks because by tomorrow, they would have had a Category 4 hurricane rumble through there with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph -- total devestation in the area," Sorrells said.

When Dennis makes landfall, it is projected to continue to plow through parts of Mississippi as a Category 1 storm.

"It gets trapped between a high pressure center out west and a ridge of high pressure that buffered it away from Florida to the east and it becomes a major rain storm across the Tennessee Valley."

At 1 p.m. EDT, Dennis' eye was 55 miles south of Pensacola, Fla.

Dennis is located near latitude 29.6 north and longitude 86.9 west.

1.4 Million Ordered To Evacuate

Evacuations were ordered for nearly 1.4 million people ahead of expected landfall Sunday afternoon.

Many residents decided to remain home, however, even with forecasts that the storm could reach Category 4 strength.

"Category 4 is not just a little bit worse -- it's much worse," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

"The damage increases exponentially as the wind speed increases. And no matter where it makes actual landfield, it's going to have a tremendous impact well away from the center."

Along the Gulf Coast, many residents were patching up roofs on their homes or living in government trailers because of damage caused by Hurricane Ivan just 10 months ago. For them, Dennis meant another tense weekend of long lines for gas and searching for generators and plywood.

"I'm tired of all this packing up," said Melba Turner, 70, of Fort Walton Beach. "We look like the Beverly Hillbillies when we get all packed up and leave. I'd rather stay. We're getting too old for all this fussing."

Current Warnings

A hurricane warning remains in effect for portions of the northern and northeastern Gulf Coast from the Steinhatchee River westward to the mouth of the Pearl River.

At 11 p.m., the tropical storm warning along the Florida west coast is canceled south of Bonita beach.

A tropical storm warning remains in effect along the Florida west coast from east of the Steinhatchee River southward to Bonita Beach, and for the lower Florida keys west of the Seven Mile Bridge.

A tropical storm warning is also in effect for the southeastern Louisiana coast west of the mouth of the Pearl River to Grand Isle, including metropolitan New Orleans and Lake Ponchartrain.

20 Deaths In Haiti, Cuba

The hurricane, blamed for at least 20 deaths in Haiti and Cuba, was expected to dump more than a half-foot of rain and swamp shores with waves and storm surge more than a story high on the Gulf Coast.

State radio in Cuba said hundreds of homes around the island's southeastern coast had been destroyed or heavily damaged, and civil defense officials said more than 1.5 million people had fled their homes.

Early Saturday, Dennis largely spared the Florida Keys as it swept into the Gulf of Mexico.

The only signs of the damage in Key West were flooded streets littered with tree branches, plywood, street signs and other debris, but more than 211,000 homes and businesses lost power Saturday across Southern Florida, including all of Key West.

"We're holding up," Key West Mayor Jimmy Weekly said. Residents who evacuated the lower Keys were asked to away until Sunday, and visitors were told they could return Monday.

Several tornadoes in the Tampa Bay area caused minor damage such as downed trees, and more twisters were likely in parts of the Gulf of Mexico coast Sunday.

In Alabama, about 500,000 people were under evacuation orders, as were 700,000 in Florida and 190,000 in Mississippi. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Alabama Gov. Bob Rille, mindful of Ivan last year, urged residents to evacuate if they were told to do so.

"I do worry about the folks in ... places that really got hit hard," Bush said. "They're hurting. I think there is a legitimate feeling, 'Why me? What did I do wrong."' Traffic doubled on some Mississippi highways as people fled inland from the coasts of Florida, Alabama and Louisiana. Alabama officials turned Interstate 65 into a one-way route north from the coast to Montgomery.

However, confident that the hurricane would make landfall farther east, officials in New Orleans told nearly half a million residents they could stay home. A voluntary evacuation was lifted for suburban Jefferson Parish, including the barrier island town of Grand Isle.

"We want you to be somewhat comfortable, but not totally relaxed," New Orleans Mayor Ray Angina said Saturday.

Among the evacuees were tens of thousands of military personnel, their families and much of the war equipment that officials didn't want to leave in harm's way. At Hurlburt Field, home to the Air Force's 16th Special Operations Wing, not a plane was in sight Saturday.

But many people refused to be scared away.

"I always stay," nightclub worker Clifton Ugh said in Gulf Shores, Ala. "I've never evacuated. We don't have any place to go. We'll have a couple of decks of cards and some candles and flashlights."

"This is home. This is what we go through," Danielle Kelson said as she filled up gas cans in Pensacola.

Some neighborhoods in Mobile, Ala., had the appearance of a typical Saturday as people mowed lawns, jogged, and shopped.

"God's going to take care of me," Dorothy McGee of Prichard, Ala., said as she shopped for groceries. And besides, she said, "I have nowhere to go."

Feeder Bands Ending In Central Fla.

The heaviest feeder bands from Hurricane Dennis traveled through Central Florida Saturday night.

"It is starting to peel away to the northwest, away from Central Florida," Sorrells said. "Some of the heavier feeder bands that we have already seen Saturday night will be the heaviest ones we will see, even though tomorrow promises to be an active day in Central Florida with a lot of thundershower activity and rain."

Sorrells said the area will still get some lighter feeder bands rolling through the Central Florida area Sunday.

Watch Local 6 Weather with Tom Sorrells, Michele Cimino and Larry Mowry for your forecast.